Peter Widdicombe
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199242481
- eISBN:
- 9780191697111
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199242481.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the genesis of Athanasius' theology of God as Father and to analyse its structure against the background of the ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the genesis of Athanasius' theology of God as Father and to analyse its structure against the background of the Alexandrian tradition. It is important to recognize that Athanasius was not the first Alexandrian to write about the divine fatherhood. He was writing within the context of an Alexandrian tradition of reflection on the fatherhood of God, a tradition in which the terms Father and Son were the determinative metaphors for theological discussion. The book also demonstrates that Origen believed that the affirmation God is Father lay at the heart of the Christian faith.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the genesis of Athanasius' theology of God as Father and to analyse its structure against the background of the Alexandrian tradition. It is important to recognize that Athanasius was not the first Alexandrian to write about the divine fatherhood. He was writing within the context of an Alexandrian tradition of reflection on the fatherhood of God, a tradition in which the terms Father and Son were the determinative metaphors for theological discussion. The book also demonstrates that Origen believed that the affirmation God is Father lay at the heart of the Christian faith.
Peter Widdicombe
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199242481
- eISBN:
- 9780191697111
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199242481.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians have referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, ...
More
The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians have referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, it was not until Athanasius in the 4th century that the idea of God as Father became a topic of sustained analysis. Looking at the genesis of Athanasius' understanding of divine fatherhood against the background of the Alexandrian tradition, the author of this book demonstrates how the concept came to occupy such a prominent place in Christian theology. He argues that there is a continuity in the Alexandrian tradition that runs from Origen to Athanasius, and shows how in the detail of their language and in the structure of their arguments, the 3rd and 4th century Alexandrians drew on Origen's portrayal of God as Father. For Origen, the fatherhood of God lay at the heart of the Christian faith: to know God fully and thus to be saved is to know God as Father. For Athanasius, the fatherhood of God was integral to the defence of the divinity of the Son against the Arian challenge: Fatherhood identified God as the loving and fruitful source of all things and as the one who has sought to meet us in his Son Jesus Christ. Arius, however, was an important exception, and for him it was logically possible to refer to God without calling him Father.Less
The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians have referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, it was not until Athanasius in the 4th century that the idea of God as Father became a topic of sustained analysis. Looking at the genesis of Athanasius' understanding of divine fatherhood against the background of the Alexandrian tradition, the author of this book demonstrates how the concept came to occupy such a prominent place in Christian theology. He argues that there is a continuity in the Alexandrian tradition that runs from Origen to Athanasius, and shows how in the detail of their language and in the structure of their arguments, the 3rd and 4th century Alexandrians drew on Origen's portrayal of God as Father. For Origen, the fatherhood of God lay at the heart of the Christian faith: to know God fully and thus to be saved is to know God as Father. For Athanasius, the fatherhood of God was integral to the defence of the divinity of the Son against the Arian challenge: Fatherhood identified God as the loving and fruitful source of all things and as the one who has sought to meet us in his Son Jesus Christ. Arius, however, was an important exception, and for him it was logically possible to refer to God without calling him Father.
Miranda Aldhouse-Green
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300124422
- eISBN:
- 9780300165883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300124422.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter explains that the Druids of ancient literature were dynamic, their character changing according to chronology and to their chroniclers' perceptions. The Druids described by the Greek ...
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This chapter explains that the Druids of ancient literature were dynamic, their character changing according to chronology and to their chroniclers' perceptions. The Druids described by the Greek historian Timaeus in the fourth and third centuries bc were not the same as those whom Caesar and Cicero encountered in the mid-first century bc. Classical authors who help to place the Druids in time—those of the so-called Alexandrian Tradition, of whom many were Christian writers oddly enough—harked back to the Druids as examples of Noble Savages. A recent Time Team programme took as its theme the confrontation between the Druids and the Roman governor Suetonius Paulinus on Anglesey in ad 60 and possible archaeological evidence for these Tacitean Druids. Druids contributed to the professional religious ritual and doctrine of Britain and Gaul during the later first millennium bc and early centuries of the first millennium ad.Less
This chapter explains that the Druids of ancient literature were dynamic, their character changing according to chronology and to their chroniclers' perceptions. The Druids described by the Greek historian Timaeus in the fourth and third centuries bc were not the same as those whom Caesar and Cicero encountered in the mid-first century bc. Classical authors who help to place the Druids in time—those of the so-called Alexandrian Tradition, of whom many were Christian writers oddly enough—harked back to the Druids as examples of Noble Savages. A recent Time Team programme took as its theme the confrontation between the Druids and the Roman governor Suetonius Paulinus on Anglesey in ad 60 and possible archaeological evidence for these Tacitean Druids. Druids contributed to the professional religious ritual and doctrine of Britain and Gaul during the later first millennium bc and early centuries of the first millennium ad.
